What's next ??

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C7AR15

New member
When you study the history and development of the modern firearm it soon becomes obvious that it was done in small increments.
The first gun was just a small cannon tied to a stick. Then came match locks, flintlocks. Mean while black powder was being improved into smokeless. The ignition system was moving along from striking a spark to a percussion cap.
Soon someone was putting rifling in barrels to make the projectile more accurate. Then breech loading, cartridges and semi- auto actions followed.

To me it seems like progress stopped around WW2. We have had plastics become part of the modern firearm - since the M16 ???

So my question is "What new development is coming to guns ???" Anybody have any ideas about the next step ??

My thought is that guns have come about as far as they can and the next step will be a leap frog technology that obsoletes firearms. Well, maybe.
 
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barnbwt

New member
Telescoped ammo followed soon after by caseless, and something more compact than a linearly-reciprocating firearm action (probably something like the G11, only not stupid with German space-magic)

TCB
 
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jmr40

New member
To me it seems like progress stopped around WW2.
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Advancements in powder and bullets have changed dramatically since WW-2. A typical 30-06 load in WW-1 was a 150 gr bullet at 2700 fps. By WW-2 it had increased to 2800 fps. Today's typical factory loads are 2900-3000 fps and 3100 fps is easily achieved by hand loading, some factory loads are that fast.

With the better bullets today a modern 243 will do more damage and penetrate deeper than a 150 gr 30-06 from the 1950's

Optics today are about 10X better than what was available then. This is needed to take full advantage of better bullets that retain bullet speed at much longer ranges making longer range shooting possible.

During WW-2 a 2 MOA rifle was a better than average shooter and 4 MOA was acceptable. Today anything greater than 1 MOA is considered unacceptable even for a hunting rifle.

Progress in any field often comes in small steps with the occasional big breakthrough. I don't see the trend changing with firearms.

The trend is away from hunting rifles and target rifles are filling the void. There are fewer and fewer hunters, but lots of people wanting to shoot at ranges.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
I agree with most of this, but,
Today anything greater than 1 MOA is considered unacceptable even for a hunting rifle.
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I think you should check what the military specs are. I don't think they are down to requiring 1 MOA rifles, yet. I don't know, but I don't think so, at least for general issue service rifles.

I do know that in the late 70s, with the Vietnam ..experience.. fresh in their minds, the Army Standard for overseas shipment for the M16A1 was 8 (eight) MOA. That's right, 8 moa. That was what was in the manual. If the rifle DIDN'T shoot at least that well, it was retained in the US for training purposes!

And, to my knowledge, no rifles were ever even tested against that standard, prior to shipment.

Civilian "standards" for even a hunting rifle have, during my lifetime always been higher than military standards except for match rifles.

I grew up in the era where we worked long and hard on our rifles and our ammo to get 1MOA shooters, and often didn't get them. When you got a rifle that shot 1MOA, or below, it was a pearl of great price, and not something given up easily.

I know improvements in both have changed things, since, but I do wonder how much of the overall accuracy improvement (everyone has 1MOA rifles or better, now) is keyboard originated.
 
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Hairy Clipper

New member
Pointable electromagnetic waves on the frequency with enough power to disable the nervous system in living beings and cause surface heating of the skin that will cause ignition of the body.
 
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9x45

New member
Progress is slow. It only took about 80 years to motorize the Gatling Gun into the Vulcan Mini Gun, which went into service in 1959 (designed in 1946).

250px-Gatling_gun_1865.jpg


300px-Vulcan1.jpg
 
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g.willikers

New member
A large obstacle to small arms development has been who the largest market has historically been.
Governments and militaries.
 
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rickyrick

New member
I know improvements in both have changed things, since, but I do wonder how much of the overall accuracy improvement (everyone has 1MOA rifles or better, now) is keyboard originated.
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I agree with that, specially guys shooting bulk military ammo.

I think a <1moa rifle or >1moa rifle would not even be noticed by most folks, including myself as I don't load my own and rarely shoot with anything better that an old fence post as support.

I know that most soldiers cannot get 3 holes touching each other at 25 meters as well... They wouldn't notice the difference between 1moa or 2moa...
Not bashing anyone, but I spent 15 years on the army.... Quite a few trips to the range in that time, I've seen lots of people's targets.
 
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campingnights

New member
The next big step would be phasers (as in Star Trek). Before that I think we will see caseless and powderless ammo. Powered by an extremely high pressure cartrage pushing out multiple silent bullets. A form of this type of firearm was carried by Lewis and Clark, that's likely why the Indians mostly left them alone. They thought it was magic.
 
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cslinger

New member
Optics/targeting/smart munitions. We have seen that radically change from just gulf war 1 to now. Add that to those first steps we are seeing in computer aided smart munitions or targeting.

The real breakthrough for most everything out there today will be power sources that last exponentially longer or are able to use the environment to quickly charge.

Just my thoughts.
 
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DaleA

New member
Sorry for the delay guys (and gals)...
I didn't realize it was my turn to say:

"Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range."
 
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buckhorn_cortez

New member
In optics, Sandia National Laboratories has been working on an adaptive zoom rifle scope..

Rather than moving lenses relative to each other, the scope has flexible lens membranes separated by fluid. Piezoelectric actuators flex the lens membranes to change the focal length.
 
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rickyrick

New member
I wouldn't want a smart weapon.
Although mechanical parts can fail, I wouldn't trust anything with software.
Smart guns would be a step backwards.

Probably will see more environmentally friendly ammo. Lots of less lethal options coming.

Improvements in the short term will be stuff with hype:
Special coatings
Special lubes

Also I think lighter, slimmer carry pistols as the popularity of them continues to increase.

On the short term legal side, more states will restrict guns as other states loosen restrictions even more.... Long term, the right to keep and bear firearms as we know it will end. At the minimum, biometric safeties.
 
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C7AR15

New member
Smart guns

Guns using software to operate, that is scary. Not because i think that AI will take over, but when software gets quirky Ughhhhh.

Remember when Toyota had brake problems related to software.
 
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Glenn E. Meyer

New member
Smaller guided rounds. There are already 50 BMGs that can home in on laser illuminators. Can these be made for smaller rifle and pistol rounds?

Or we won't carry guns at all. You will wear an array of mini drones that can fly to your opponent and shoot 'em.
 
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